Women are hard to interpret just as Edmondo De Amiscis said, “A woman is always a mystery: one must not be fooled by her face and her hearts inspiration." You can never be sure what a woman's intentions are. They change their mind at any second and may start acting discretely. This is especially true for the archetypal character femme fatale.
A femme fatale, meaning fatal female, is a seductive woman who inflicts harm and danger onto men. In most cases she lures men in with her beauty and then proceeds to take advantage of them. The men are unaware of the woman's intentions because she uses her beauty and other traits to seduce or distract them. Some femme fatales take advantage of men in different ways, some kill while others change their form to take advantage of people.
Many times in stories the femme fatale teaches a man a valuable lesson. If the man is not killed by the femme fatale, they will learn to use self control and restrain from falling under a woman's spell so easily. Circe: The Odyssey (Literature) Eve: The Bible (World Mythology) Eve, Adam’s wife from the Bible, is another seductive woman. Like every other witch she seduces men, in this case Adam, and convinces him to eat the forbidden fruit. By having Adam eat the fruit she caused sin and death to be established to the world. Thus she is destructive not only to the man who she became involved with, but the entire human race. Unlike every other witch or sorceress she does not have any magical powers. She is simply human, like God created her to be.
The Queen: Snow White (Pop Culture/Other) The Queen, from Snow White, was a witch. After seducing the king to become queen, she found out that she was not the most beautiful woman of all the kingdom. She goes after Snow White, who was the fairest of them all, and tries to kill her. Using her magical powers, she turns into a wretched old lady who offers Snow White her death by means of an apple. Like most femme fatales she seduces a man. The queen, like most witches, has magical powers, but unlike most, she turns into an old hag instead of a beautiful woman to get revenge. Ursula: The LIttle Mermaid (Pop Culture)
Ivy: Batman and Robin (Pop Culture) Ivy, from Batman and Robin, is the queen of plants, botany, and environmentalism. She has magical powers to poison people, have almost any given person fall in love with her, and make plants follow any order she wants. After finding Batman and Robin, she captures both of them in her plants, planning to kill them after the destruction of the world. Unfortunately for her, she is defeated. Unlike the other femme fatale, she does not seduce Batman or Robin although she does try. Neither Batman or Robin is hurt in any lasting way, while other femme fatale might try and cause pain to Batman or Robin.
Delilah: The Bible (Literature) Samson, being born as “God’s Child,” would dedicate his life to God. There were many restrictions to his life, but Samson was the most remarkable fighter. When Samson became acquainted with Delilah he was charmed by her grace and beauty, although Delilah was only using Samson similar to other many well known femme fatales. Delilah was being paid to uncover Samson’s secret to fighting, the one secret God did not want for him to share. As Delilah kept insisting that Samson tell her he withheld the secret from her, but soon enough Delilah uncovered it. Just as Samson had told her, Delilah cut off all his hair causing him to lose his remarkable fighting ability and causing Samson to be overcome by the Philistines. Samson had seen all of Delilah’s wretchedness, but they did not seem to faze him in the slightest because of Delilah’s beauty. Delilah is a perfect example of a femme fatale in world mythology. Sirens: (Greek Mythology)
Sam: Awake (Pop Culture/Other) In the movie, Awake, Sam played by Jessica Alba is one of the greatest examples of a femme fatale in pop culture. Sam lures her multi-millionaire boyfriend into a quick and easy marriage before he goes through heart surgery. Once married to Sam and in heart transplant surgery, Sam’s husband becomes a huge victim in Sam’s scheme to inherit all of his money. Sam attempts to kill her husband during his heart transplant surgery and inherit his millions of dollars. Although Sam’s scheme back fires, her intentions were always there and provide a wonderful example of a femme fatale in pop culture. Jane Toppan: Real Life
Belle Gunness: Real Life Belle Gunness was a serial killer that lived from 1859-1908. She was known for killing many people, such as suitors, boyfriends, husbands, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. When it came to the men that she seduced, she would seem like the nicest person ever and when she found the right moment, she would kill the man. The femme fatale did very many similar things to this. The Archetype, femme fatale, would seduce her victims in enchanting and charming ways. After that, she would kill them. The actions of Belle Gunness are wonderful real life examples of the actions that a Femme Fatale committed.
Hornby, Charlotte. "Representation of women in Disney films." Rev. of The Little
Mermaid. Representation of women in Disney flims. N.p., 9 Mar. 2005.
Web. 15 Sept. 2009. <http:/charlottesmedia.blogspot.com/>.
"The Little Mermaid." Geocities. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/
Studios/2098/littlemermaid.html>.
Murray, Rebecca. "'Awake' movie photo: Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba." About.com. The New York
Times Company, 2009. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://movies.about.com/od/awake/ig/awake032106/
awake03210603.htm>.
Odysseus and the Sirens. 5th Century B.C.E. British Museum. Theoi. Web. 21 Sept.
2009. <http:/www.theoi.com/Pontios/Seirenes.html>.
Parks, James, and Sally Corbett. "Orpheus." An Introduction to Ancient Greece.
N.p., 1997. Web. 17 Sept. 2009. <http:/www.hipark.austinisd.org/
mythology/orpheus.html>.
Pierce, Lesley. "The Little Mermaid...With a Twist 'Everybody Gets Lonely.'" The Little Mermaid.
N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://students.ou.edu/P/Lesley.B.Pierce-1/
littlemermaid.html>.
The Femme Fatale
Women are hard to interpret just as Edmondo De Amiscis said, “A woman is always a mystery: one must not be fooled by her face and her hearts inspiration." You can never be sure what a woman's intentions are. They change their mind at any second and may start acting discretely. This is especially true for the archetypal character femme fatale.
A femme fatale, meaning fatal female, is a seductive woman who inflicts harm and danger onto men. In most cases she lures men in with her beauty and then proceeds to take advantage of them. The men are unaware of the woman's intentions because she uses her beauty and other traits to seduce or distract them. Some femme fatales take advantage of men in different ways, some kill while others change their form to take advantage of people.
Many times in stories the femme fatale teaches a man a valuable lesson. If the man is not killed by the femme fatale, they will learn to use self control and restrain from falling under a woman's spell so easily.
Circe: The Odyssey (Literature)
Eve: The Bible (World Mythology)
Eve, Adam’s wife from the Bible, is another seductive woman. Like every other witch she seduces men, in this case Adam, and convinces him to eat the forbidden fruit. By having Adam eat the fruit she caused sin and death to be established to the world. Thus she is destructive not only to the man who she became involved with, but the entire human race. Unlike every other witch or sorceress she does not have any magical powers. She is simply human, like God created her to be.
The Queen: Snow White (Pop Culture/Other)
The Queen, from Snow White, was a witch. After seducing the king to become queen, she found out that she was not the most beautiful woman of all the kingdom. She goes after Snow White, who was the fairest of them all, and tries to kill her. Using her magical powers, she turns into a wretched old lady who offers Snow White her death by means of an apple. Like most femme fatales she seduces a man. The queen, like most witches, has magical powers, but unlike most, she turns into an old hag instead of a beautiful woman to get revenge.
Ursula: The LIttle Mermaid (Pop Culture)
Ivy: Batman and Robin (Pop Culture)
Ivy, from Batman and Robin, is the queen of plants, botany, and environmentalism. She has magical powers to poison people, have almost any given person fall in love with her, and make plants follow any order she wants. After finding Batman and Robin, she captures both of them in her plants, planning to kill them after the destruction of the world. Unfortunately for her, she is defeated. Unlike the other femme fatale, she does not seduce Batman or Robin although she does try. Neither Batman or Robin is hurt in any lasting way, while other femme fatale might try and cause pain to Batman or Robin.
Delilah: The Bible (Literature)
Samson, being born as “God’s Child,” would dedicate his life to God. There were many restrictions to his life, but Samson was the most remarkable fighter. When Samson became acquainted with Delilah he was charmed by her grace and beauty, although Delilah was only using Samson similar to other many well known femme fatales. Delilah was being paid to uncover Samson’s secret to fighting, the one secret God did not want for him to share. As Delilah kept insisting that Samson tell her he withheld the secret from her, but soon enough Delilah uncovered it. Just as Samson had told her, Delilah cut off all his hair causing him to lose his remarkable fighting ability and causing Samson to be overcome by the Philistines. Samson had seen all of Delilah’s wretchedness, but they did not seem to faze him in the slightest because of Delilah’s beauty. Delilah is a perfect example of a femme fatale in world mythology.
Sirens: (Greek Mythology)
Sam: Awake (Pop Culture/Other)
In the movie, Awake, Sam played by Jessica Alba is one of the greatest examples of a femme fatale in pop culture. Sam lures her multi-millionaire boyfriend into a quick and easy marriage before he goes through heart surgery. Once married to Sam and in heart transplant surgery, Sam’s husband becomes a huge victim in Sam’s scheme to inherit all of his money. Sam attempts to kill her husband during his heart transplant surgery and inherit his millions of dollars. Although Sam’s scheme back fires, her intentions were always there and provide a wonderful example of a femme fatale in pop culture.
Jane Toppan: Real Life
Belle Gunness: Real Life
Belle Gunness was a serial killer that lived from 1859-1908. She was known for killing many people, such as suitors, boyfriends, husbands, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. When it came to the men that she seduced, she would seem like the nicest person ever and when she found the right moment, she would kill the man. The femme fatale did very many similar things to this. The Archetype, femme fatale, would seduce her victims in enchanting and charming ways. After that, she would kill them. The actions of Belle Gunness are wonderful real life examples of the actions that a Femme Fatale committed.
Citations
Aaron J. Asthma. "Seirenes." Theoi. TheoiProject, 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 15 Sept. 2009. <http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/
Seirenes.html>.
"Awake (film)." Wikipedia. Wikidpedia, 12 Sept. 2009. Web. 20 Sept. 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awake_(film)>.
"Belle Gunness" www.laportecountyhistory.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2009.
<http://www.laportecountyhistory.org/images/bg2.jpg>.
<http://www.legalmoviesdownloads.com/download-movies/awake/>.
"Circe and her Swine." Mythical Women. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2009.
<http://mythical-women.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html>.
"The Femme Fatale Throughout History." History Television. Tide, 2009. Web. 15
Sept. 2009. <http://www.history.ca/content/
ContentDetail.aspx?ContentId=73>.
Hornby, Charlotte. "Representation of women in Disney films." Rev. of The Little
Mermaid. Representation of women in Disney flims. N.p., 9 Mar. 2005.
Web. 15 Sept. 2009. <http:/charlottesmedia.blogspot.com/>.
"The Little Mermaid." Geocities. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/
Studios/2098/littlemermaid.html>.
Murray, Rebecca. "'Awake' movie photo: Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba." About.com. The New York
Times Company, 2009. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://movies.about.com/od/awake/ig/awake032106/
awake03210603.htm>.
Odysseus and the Sirens. 5th Century B.C.E. British Museum. Theoi. Web. 21 Sept.
2009. <http:/www.theoi.com/Pontios/Seirenes.html>.
Parks, James, and Sally Corbett. "Orpheus." An Introduction to Ancient Greece.
N.p., 1997. Web. 17 Sept. 2009. <http:/www.hipark.austinisd.org/
mythology/orpheus.html>.
Pierce, Lesley. "The Little Mermaid...With a Twist 'Everybody Gets Lonely.'" The Little Mermaid.
N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://students.ou.edu/P/Lesley.B.Pierce-1/
littlemermaid.html>.
"Samson and Delilah." Friendship Baptist Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2009.
<http://www.friendshipbaptistchurch.com/cmay.html>.
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Wicked Queen." Animation, USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2009.
Stewart, Michael. "Kirke", Greek Mythology: From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant. Web. 17 Sept. 2009. <http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/bios/circe.html>.
<http://sasha.blog.hitz.fm/blog/archive/2008/07>.
"Samson and Delilah." Friendship Baptist Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2009.
<http://www.friendshipbaptistchurch.com/cmay.html>.
"Samson and Delilah c. 1615." Gerrit Van Honthorst: The Complete Works. N.p., 2009. Web. 21 Sept.
2009. <http://www.gerrit-van-honthorst.org/Samson-and-Delilah-c.-1615.html>.
Research - Google Document